By Kathryn McKenna
Gillian Adams is Director of Service Management for Agio, a hybrid provider of IT management and cybersecurity for hedge funds, private equity funds and financial service providers.
As part of Agio’s expansion plans, the global organisation will create up to 80 roles within the Belfast office. To support the increased headcount the company has relocated to new premises within Arthur Place, Glandore’s newly refurbished state-of-the-art city centre offices.
The global company is the brainchild of CEO, Bart McDonough who identified a gap in the market in the midst of the financial crisis in 2008. Bart’s vision was to build a technology provider that could provide enterprise-level support but in a way that understands the culture and the technology demands of a large hedge fund. As a result, Bart formed Agio in 2010. The term Agio literally means ‘a premium that’s the value add to a transaction’ because Agio works with companies doing transactions - whether it’s a single trading stock transaction or buying and selling companies. For Bart, Agio would become the ‘value add’ that was missing in 2008.
Agio's new offices in Glandore Belfast
Gillian’s career in technology was by no means conventional and perfectly illustrates that careers do not need to follow a straight path. Having graduated from Ulster University with a Master’s degree in Marketing, Gillian shifted the direction of her own career after initially starting out as a Marketing Assistant for a company providing broadcasting software.
Gillian always had an avid interest in IT, having been inspired throughout her formative years by her father. Growing up, she often sat beside him for hours at a time as he coded on the family computer.
Seeking a new challenge, Gillian enquired how she might become part of the team that was actively involved in providing installation services and training of the software and was promptly handed an extensive instruction manual with the proviso that if she could set up the servers and install the platform, she could have the job. Gillian accepted the challenge and took her first successful steps towards a career in tech. After being sent to Paris for further training, Gillian then moved to Washington DC where she was offered a full-time role as a software instructor.
Gillian continued working in Washington, moving into Project Management and Business Process Design, before making the decision to move home to Northern Ireland in 2006, working in a variety of sectors before deciding in 2012 she wished to pursue her career once again within the technology and IT sphere. Gillian worked with several leading local IT and technology companies before joining global company Agio in Belfast as a Platform Architect in October 2021.
Since then, Gillian has progressed to her current role as Director of Service Management, having initially served as Associate Director of Platforms and Director of Platforms. It is this career progression and focus on finding the right role to suit her individual strengths and interests that Gillian highlights as truly standing out to her throughout her time at Agio.
Gillian comments: “Agio excels at recognizing people’s strengths and positioning them where they can achieve the best results, aligned with their interests. While it’s a fast-paced environment, it’s also highly supportive. That’s what makes working at Agio so special to me.”
Agio operates a flexible hybrid-first policy
Gillian highlights that Agio’s CEO and founder, Bart, takes the time to fully understand each employee’s role and the challenges they face. In addition to the monthly company-wide meetings, Bart hosts twice-monthly ‘Ask Me Anything’ sessions. These sessions allow employees to ask him anything, from his current book of choice to detailed financial or company strategy queries.
Reflecting on Agio’s flat management structure, Gillian explains that this setup fosters highly engaged collaboration across teams and levels of seniority. Employees feel empowered to make changes and are encouraged to speak up and communicate fearlessly, knowing their opinions will be heard. If a process isn’t working, everyone is expected to voice their concerns and contribute to finding a solution.
READ MORE: Belfast-based Agio set for major expansion
Gillian explains, “I absolutely love our values of #SpeakUp and #CommunicateFearlessly. At Agio, we believe in being honest and open to build trust. Treating each other as fully formed adults means we can have those tough conversations and keep getting better every day.”
Addressing the gender gap in the Northern Ireland technology sector where females make up just 24 per cent of the workforce, Gillian is keen to emphasise that finding a company which offers the ideal culture fit is vital. Gillian adds it is important to understand careers are not linear, and there are a host of roles within the sector which are not dependent on detailed IT knowledge.
In addition to this, Gillian encourages people and women in particular who are returning to the workplace following a career break or time off due to family leave, to utilise the different technology programmes available now which offer new exciting career prospects. Gillian emphasizes that people returning to work often underestimate the valuable skills they’ve gained during their time away. For example, managing a family involves excellent project management and time management skills, which can easily transfer to a job in IT.
Gillian stresses the importance of finding a company where culturally you are a great fit and to remain open-minded to the opportunities available to you by speaking with colleagues in different areas of expertise and see if you could envision yourself working in that field. Then it’s a matter of exploring where applicable what further training opportunities are required to make this happen. There are so many credible courses on offer now which are ideal for people retraining or returning to the workplace following family leave, who are interested in pursuing a new career.
Gillian goes on to explain the importance of empathy and while you might not need to know exactly what somebody does, you do need to be able to put yourself in their position to best understand how you can help them to rise. Gillian recalls growing up with the sense that once you had chosen your career path you had to stick with it, however nowadays people are much more likely to explore different things before discovering their ideal fit.
Agio Belfast is currently recruiting for new job opportunities
For anyone at school or university, Gillian would encourage them to pursue work experience opportunities in different sectors and gain exposure to as many different things as possible. There is still very much a misunderstanding that a technical background is required to work in the technology sector however there are so many different areas to work including HR; finance; communications and more.
Gillian comments: “The career choices you make at 16 don’t have to define your entire life. Embrace new opportunities, and if they work out, that’s wonderful. If not, it’s perfectly fine to change direction. Trust your instincts—if it feels right, it probably is, so go for it.”
Visit Sync NI/ Agio to find out more including in-depth news features, Q&As with Agio team members, and insightful Thought Leadership pieces from Agio’s experts.
Read Sync NI's free online Big Data Belfast autumn magazine here.
